The Hoxton, Amsterdam

On a beautiful canal, within walking distance of the major museums and with a hip shopping quarter on its doorstep, the Hoxton has a buzzing lounge-bar, a great all-day restaurant, a style that mixes recent with retro, and good-sized, comfortable rooms.

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£124per night

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Location

9/10

The hotel is in a prime spot on Amsterdam’s most gracious canal, in the heart of the Negen Straatjes shopping quarter, under 10 minutes’ walk to the Dam and around 20 minutes to Central Station or (in the opposite direction) to the Rijksmuseum.

Style & character

9/10

Grand canal house on the outside; convivial hip within. The entrance area is at semi-basement souterrain level: part lobby lounge/bar with rough brick walls, wooden floors, scuffed leather sofas (mounded with cushions), and 1950s and 1970s vintage furniture; part restaurant (lined with large white tiles, like a castle kitchen), and with the reception counter a long cabinet down one wall, stuffed with flea-market bric-a-brac (antique scissors, painted egg cups, collectible Rizla packets).

Decorative cocoa, coffee and biscuit tins from decades long gone are scattered on shelves, and old prints of people in Dutch traditional dress line the lifts, but any descent into nostalgia is waylaid by sizzling exhibitions of work by hot young local artists. The Hox is hugely popular with Amsterdammers, which gives public areas a living, happening atmosphere, rather than a feeling of transitory hotel functionality.

Service & facilities

8/10

Staff – casually dressed in street-cool style – are barely distinguishable from the fashionable clientele, and are quick off the mark and helpful. Bicycles are available for guests, and in addition to the bar and Lotti’s restaurant, there are rooms for meetings, functions and private dining set around a small, separate garden atrium.

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Rooms

9/10

Corridors with funky Escher-style carpets take you to rooms that (like the public areas) mix nostalgia with sleek modernism: a retro-style digital radio, vintage alarm clock, 1980s phone and herringbone parquet floors playing style games with a hexagonal mirror, a clean-lined desk, an abstract brass-wire lampshade. Beds are wallowingly comfy, and Room 504 (a ‘Cosy’ room – there are larger ‘Roomy’ ones, too) has ample space for two to move about, though only a small stool and desk chair to sit on and a kettle (rather than espresso machine) for coffee.

Hanging space is limited (four hangers), though fine for a short stay. The shower room (reminiscent of the 1930s, with white tiles, chunky taps and exposed brass piping) is wet-room style, and reasonably sized by Amsterdam standards, with a goodly amount of shelf space. A few rooms have canal views; others look into a central atrium.

Food & drink

8/10

The busy downstairs lounge bar has a more secluded mezzanine layer, awash with comfy chairs (and phone-charging sockets aplenty), and is famed for its Soho Mule, sweetened with homemade ginger syrup, and Dutch genever-based cocktails.

Lotti’s restaurant (which has a glass roof, retractable in good weather) is full on flavour and broad in style – from fat, juicy burgers and wood-grilled seabass to lentil salad with jalapeno dressing, and an irresistible Lima-bean paste with pickled chorizo and crunchy fried onions.

A breakfast bag containing orange juice, a banana, granola and yoghurt is brought to your room; for more (avo with poached eggs, pancakes, full English) there’s an à la carte option at Lotti’s (dishes from €7/£6).

Value for money

8/10

Doubles from €299 (£261) low season, and from €449 (£392) in high, including breakfast bag delivered to the room. Free Wi-Fi.

Access for guests with disabilities?

One room has a specially adapted bathroom. Larger, ‘Roomy’ rooms are wheelchair accessible, and a bench can be brought in for the shower. There are stairs to the main lobby from street level, but a chair lift is available.

Family-friendly?

Interconnecting rooms and cribs are available, but the Hox is largely a hip, grown-up world.